Thursday, May 2, 7:00 P.M.
Members $100, guests $125

Imagine growing up in a town where everyone knows your dad as the guru of ganache. Imagine the whispers…the knowing glances…the envy of all your neighbors for having unlimited access to killer cookies and decadent desserts. How would you handle all that? If you're Danielle Desaulniers, daughter of the award-winning chef and cookbook author Marcel Desaulniers, you'd naturally gravitate toward epicurean pursuits and go on to be a sommelier at Alain Ducasse at the Essex House, the legendary chef's New York outpost. Imagine how proud her father is—a man who knows a little something about accomplishment. A CIA trustee and a recipient of its Lifetime Achievement Award, Desaulniers has been named to Food & Wine's Honor Roll of American Chefs, listed among The James Beard Foundation Who's Who of Food and Beverage in America, and of course, is a multiple James Beard Award winner. And that's just skimming the surface.

Rhode Island-native Desaulniers went to the CIA, but after graduation, he was drafted. He fought in Vietnam, then returned stateside where he worked at the Hotel Pierre in New York and eventually made his way to Williamsburg, Virginia. There, he and his friend and partner, John Curtis, decided to open The Trellis; they had instant success, and 22 years later, the restaurant is still going strong. When Desaulniers isn't behind the stove, he's either writing yet another critically acclaimed cookbook or appearing on cooking shows and making guest appearances throughout the country.

Like many of us, Danielle Desaulniers eschewed her dad's line of work for part of her life. However, a trip to France with her dad sparked her interest in food and wine and upon their return, she made her way through each station in the Trellis kitchen. She went to the CIA, completed rigorous sommelier certification courses, then was tapped as wine manager of the famed One Market Restaurant in San Francisco. She went on to serve as assistant food and beverage manager at the Golden Gate's Campton Place Hotel, then came east to work as assistant captain for Restaurant Daniel and Café Boulud in New York. Before landing the sommelier post at Ducasse, Danielle was the wine director for New York's Del Frisco's Steak House.